I think that the "less cards per pack" message people keep saying is a bit disingenuine.
What we're seeing is set boosters getting an "additional" card (reportedly not increasing the price) while draft boosters just go away. While you were get less commons for the average draft, Maro has already acknowledged online that this will affect how they develop sets moving forward (it has already been mentioned that answers will get more attention to address the higher number of rares appearing in limited pools and Markov Manor will be one of the first sets to have more uncommons than commons).
With that said, the economics here are still going to be worth discussing.
1. If the cheapest available booster box for non-primium sets costs in the neighborhood of $140-150 (normal set booster box with 6 additional packs), I probably will not be buying boxes to draft with friends.
2. If we reach the point where prereleases for non-premium sets cost $40-45 (twice what they were when I started this game), I'm not sure that's a bridge I'm willing to cross.
While this arrangement certainly benefits smaller shops (who can use less space and cater to both limited crowds and people who crack packs), I'm not sure how this affects the larger game stores that get proportionally more traffic. If anything, I'd expect that the reduction in options would lead to fewer drafts going off and a slight reduction in overall sales (it's not like people who previously bought set packs are going to magically ramp up their purchases with this change, after all).
If it was a mana ability and could be activated as part of casting a spell, I don't think that cascade would actually trigger for that spell, which would be counterintuitive. By making it a non-mana ability and forcing you to activate it before you start casting the next spell, you will never fall into that awkward spot.
This card effectively has 3 distinct ways to get a 1-for-1 (casting pre-attack to get the bite, casting before blockers to untap a blocker or block a flier, or blanking a kill spell), is almost impossible to interact with, and is a 1-drop instant. While it is reliant on the board state, this seems deece.
Those nine cards put together add up to over $150 (per mtg goldfish) right there and 7 of the nine (all except gisela/thune) are generally pretty decent cards in general. Add several smaller pieces worth a bit of value (bishop of wings, righteous Valkyrie, lightning greaves, tome of legends, sword of the animist, vanquisher's banner), the novelty of Arden Angel, and the fact that this looks like a genuinely pretty good (start for a) mono white angel deck and I'm pretty sold on this.
Edit: Plus, while it hasn't been stated, we were told before that the completed version of the Alayna Danner seraph sanctuary (we were sent an earlier revision by accident, if you haven't heard) would be included as a bonus card in a future secret lair and I'm pretty sure that it's this one (if that's relevant for you).
For hybrid mana like , I believe you need to put ;symwr; with colons instead of semicolons.
I will say that the background seems weird for several reasons.
1. I believe that it should be giving the abilities to your commander. As written, it works even if you don't control a commander.
2. The landfall ability seems a bit excessive with the rest (backgrounds generally give just one ability).
3. The non-landfall ability feels weird as it is generally giving the ability of another "choose a background" commander (Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion), which would make a Laezel//Staunch Quartermaster deck seem a bit excessive.
You left out the best part. We know what the goose one is called (99% sure). The smothering tithe flavor text is attributed to “Goose mother and other tales”. The goose hydra surrounded by tons of eggs and smaller geese is Goose Mother.
Pretty happy with the fairytale focus (down to the set symbol) for Eldraine. I collected a bunch of fairy tale related draft chaff last time around for novelty sake and the thought that this set may offer the core for a Jack and the Beamstalk deck or Snow White deck is a bit more aligned with what I’d want from a fairy tale set.
Having an Enchantment Bonus sheet is also pretty nice. Now that we have enchantments, artifacts, spells, and (legendary) creatures as bonus sheets, I’m not too sure what else we would get (other than lands in our next Zendikar outing, perhaps).
The Dr. Who cards also seem fairly solid so far. Nothing broken (though that token copying saga looks nuts in Volo) but the cards are at least interesting.
Looking forward to a new cycle of gods in Ixalan, as well.
Apparently, there’s also been an image of the scene where Van Gogh is taken to a modern museum?
That one is something I feel odd about. With this and the upcoming Assassin’s creed, we might see some real-world historical figures appearing on cards, which Magic has not done for a VERY long time.
On the one hand, the mana base is absolute trash mad it isn’t worth the asking price. For many people, this is the start and end of the conversation.
Looking at the deck itself, though, it seems to be relatively solid. 7 different enchantress effects, starfield of nyx, dryad of the ilysian grove, grasp of faith, sanctum weaver… it needs the 1-mana ramp auras and a couple of of enchantments to act as win-cons but it looks surprisingly solid out of the box if you turn a blind eye to that mana base.
Choose rebels and you get to use your rebels to search any creature (of the appropriate price) from your deck, which is possibly the most effective build.
Unless you have enough mana lying around to choose God/Praetor to spam out every creature all at at once.
Endless Legion is polarizing for the annihilator ability, but is something I could imagine would be a hype card if printed in the mid or upper double digits.
I see a lot of overbearing support for Eldrazi, but it's not necessary when you understand how much overbearing support already exists in what gave the idea for Eldrazi archtype in the first place.
As stated at the top of the post, these cards were designed as hypothetical new cards for the Eldrazi commander deck (if it were ACTUALLY designed as an eldrazi commander deck, rather than "expensive colorless spell deck". As such, the assumption is that all of these cards would only be legal in commander, legacy, and vintage.
Legion was put in as the only explicit "Eldrazi typal" card, encouraging eldrazi decks that manage to somehow go wide with their tokens (going contrary to the normal expectations for eldrazi). While the effect is somewhat annoying, it's pretty hard to get out a ton of eldrazi in most circumstances and the effect is fairly slow and vulnerable to removal.
Colliza is anti-climatic and unintuitive to what it's suggesting. This mass life loss will end the game quickly, despite however many colors are being used. The first ability is a little convoluted, but I would assume it's talking about things like Mage Slayer. Although, this isn't a colorless card because of its color identity. I might just be too out of touch with the meta increasingly. Sorry.
Colliza's first ability does several things, actually, that all come down to color identity restrictions for commander.
Normally, a colorless commander deck could not run colorless cards that have a "color identity" that includes other colors. This includes eldrazi-related cards with the devoid ability like world breaker that have a colored symbol in the cost, colorless cards with an alternate cost that includes colors (such as emerge eldrazi like elder deep-fiend or decimator of the provinces, or artifacts that require colored mana to use abilities like door to nothingness. Colliza acts as a colorless eldrazi that can fit into a colorless while also being able to lead an eldrazi deck including "semi-colored" eldrazi. It also allows you to play lands (as lands are all colorless) that don't meet the color identity of your colorless creature, letting you access the mana you need to cast those eldrazi and such.
Kindred Distortion is fine, but it begs the question as to what place it will find in the deck (particularly Eldrazi). I think other types will beckon for this more, especially smaller CMC creature types. I still...really gotta say that I would be struggling to try to run this.
This was put in as a colorless continuation of the "kindred" cycle (such as kindred boon, kindred discovery, and kindred domination) created in the 2017 commander product. Again, this was only attempting to reach the level of power of a good precon.
Broodline Nexus is a great attempt at an overbearing mana ramp. Great try, but I think it has to sacrifice or loop or something for the benefit, despite the hopeful drawback. Beasts would have a field day with this. The restriction won't even matter for the application it has.
To me, this card is a temple of the false god/shrine of the Forsaken Gods (a card famously considered unusably terrible in commander) that actually gives you some decent usage in the early game while growing to full power in the late game. In any case, this card would be strictly worse than eldrazi temple in the hypothetical eldrazi deck.
Corrupted Hedron seems like it wants to be a mana rocks Bitterblossom on steroids. I've thought about how to do something like this myself before, but I would push myself to be more creative than this. It's very headstrong, and for that quality lacks fun interactivity. The interactivity it has is very monotone.
Eerie Beacon is just kinda dreary. We're beating a dead horse with the "triggers an additional time". We would want to be more creative as to open up more identity and isolate to only certain abilities that trigger to give the effect more character.
This was put in to reference the many eldrazi that have cast triggers instead of ETB triggers, while also creating a decent mana rock for 1-2 color decks.
What we're seeing is set boosters getting an "additional" card (reportedly not increasing the price) while draft boosters just go away. While you were get less commons for the average draft, Maro has already acknowledged online that this will affect how they develop sets moving forward (it has already been mentioned that answers will get more attention to address the higher number of rares appearing in limited pools and Markov Manor will be one of the first sets to have more uncommons than commons).
With that said, the economics here are still going to be worth discussing.
1. If the cheapest available booster box for non-primium sets costs in the neighborhood of $140-150 (normal set booster box with 6 additional packs), I probably will not be buying boxes to draft with friends.
2. If we reach the point where prereleases for non-premium sets cost $40-45 (twice what they were when I started this game), I'm not sure that's a bridge I'm willing to cross.
While this arrangement certainly benefits smaller shops (who can use less space and cater to both limited crowds and people who crack packs), I'm not sure how this affects the larger game stores that get proportionally more traffic. If anything, I'd expect that the reduction in options would lead to fewer drafts going off and a slight reduction in overall sales (it's not like people who previously bought set packs are going to magically ramp up their purchases with this change, after all).
If it was a mana ability and could be activated as part of casting a spell, I don't think that cascade would actually trigger for that spell, which would be counterintuitive. By making it a non-mana ability and forcing you to activate it before you start casting the next spell, you will never fall into that awkward spot.
They changed secret lair commander decks from $100 to $150 with the Brute to Cute Commander deck a while back. As for why, it's to maximize profits.
Serra Ascendant
Archangel of Tithes
Gisela, the Broken Blade
Archangel of Thune
Commander's Plate
Pearl Metallion
Urza's Incubator
Emeria, the Sky Ruin
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Those nine cards put together add up to over $150 (per mtg goldfish) right there and 7 of the nine (all except gisela/thune) are generally pretty decent cards in general. Add several smaller pieces worth a bit of value (bishop of wings, righteous Valkyrie, lightning greaves, tome of legends, sword of the animist, vanquisher's banner), the novelty of Arden Angel, and the fact that this looks like a genuinely pretty good (start for a) mono white angel deck and I'm pretty sold on this.
Edit: Plus, while it hasn't been stated, we were told before that the completed version of the Alayna Danner seraph sanctuary (we were sent an earlier revision by accident, if you haven't heard) would be included as a bonus card in a future secret lair and I'm pretty sure that it's this one (if that's relevant for you).
I will say that the background seems weird for several reasons.
1. I believe that it should be giving the abilities to your commander. As written, it works even if you don't control a commander.
2. The landfall ability seems a bit excessive with the rest (backgrounds generally give just one ability).
3. The non-landfall ability feels weird as it is generally giving the ability of another "choose a background" commander (Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion), which would make a Laezel//Staunch Quartermaster deck seem a bit excessive.
You left out the best part. We know what the goose one is called (99% sure). The smothering tithe flavor text is attributed to “Goose mother and other tales”. The goose hydra surrounded by tons of eggs and smaller geese is Goose Mother.
Pretty happy with the fairytale focus (down to the set symbol) for Eldraine. I collected a bunch of fairy tale related draft chaff last time around for novelty sake and the thought that this set may offer the core for a Jack and the Beamstalk deck or Snow White deck is a bit more aligned with what I’d want from a fairy tale set.
Having an Enchantment Bonus sheet is also pretty nice. Now that we have enchantments, artifacts, spells, and (legendary) creatures as bonus sheets, I’m not too sure what else we would get (other than lands in our next Zendikar outing, perhaps).
The Dr. Who cards also seem fairly solid so far. Nothing broken (though that token copying saga looks nuts in Volo) but the cards are at least interesting.
Looking forward to a new cycle of gods in Ixalan, as well.
That one is something I feel odd about. With this and the upcoming Assassin’s creed, we might see some real-world historical figures appearing on cards, which Magic has not done for a VERY long time.
On the one hand, the mana base is absolute trash mad it isn’t worth the asking price. For many people, this is the start and end of the conversation.
Looking at the deck itself, though, it seems to be relatively solid. 7 different enchantress effects, starfield of nyx, dryad of the ilysian grove, grasp of faith, sanctum weaver… it needs the 1-mana ramp auras and a couple of of enchantments to act as win-cons but it looks surprisingly solid out of the box if you turn a blind eye to that mana base.
Choose rebels and you get to use your rebels to search any creature (of the appropriate price) from your deck, which is possibly the most effective build.
Unless you have enough mana lying around to choose God/Praetor to spam out every creature all at at once.
Use cards like Kindred Summons, reflections of littjara, or haunting voyage to benefit you regardless of what is chosen.
Just a fun time all around.
As stated at the top of the post, these cards were designed as hypothetical new cards for the Eldrazi commander deck (if it were ACTUALLY designed as an eldrazi commander deck, rather than "expensive colorless spell deck". As such, the assumption is that all of these cards would only be legal in commander, legacy, and vintage.
Legion was put in as the only explicit "Eldrazi typal" card, encouraging eldrazi decks that manage to somehow go wide with their tokens (going contrary to the normal expectations for eldrazi). While the effect is somewhat annoying, it's pretty hard to get out a ton of eldrazi in most circumstances and the effect is fairly slow and vulnerable to removal.
Colliza's first ability does several things, actually, that all come down to color identity restrictions for commander.
Normally, a colorless commander deck could not run colorless cards that have a "color identity" that includes other colors. This includes eldrazi-related cards with the devoid ability like world breaker that have a colored symbol in the cost, colorless cards with an alternate cost that includes colors (such as emerge eldrazi like elder deep-fiend or decimator of the provinces, or artifacts that require colored mana to use abilities like door to nothingness. Colliza acts as a colorless eldrazi that can fit into a colorless while also being able to lead an eldrazi deck including "semi-colored" eldrazi. It also allows you to play lands (as lands are all colorless) that don't meet the color identity of your colorless creature, letting you access the mana you need to cast those eldrazi and such.
This was put in as a colorless continuation of the "kindred" cycle (such as kindred boon, kindred discovery, and kindred domination) created in the 2017 commander product. Again, this was only attempting to reach the level of power of a good precon.
To me, this card is a temple of the false god/shrine of the Forsaken Gods (a card famously considered unusably terrible in commander) that actually gives you some decent usage in the early game while growing to full power in the late game. In any case, this card would be strictly worse than eldrazi temple in the hypothetical eldrazi deck.
This was put in to reference the many eldrazi that have cast triggers instead of ETB triggers, while also creating a decent mana rock for 1-2 color decks.